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shared object libraries are exactly that, a special case of an ELF executable. Special, in the sense that they are not directly executable by users on the comma
by Annatar 10y ago
shared object libraries are exactly that, a special case of an ELF executable. Special, in the sense that they are not directly executable by users on the command line, other than that, there is no difference (as regular ELF executables can be compiled as re-entrant, position independent code just like shared object libraries).
- paulddraper 10y agoYeah, definitely a po-ta-to distinction. The real difference between static and dynamic linking is self-contained vs. external dependencies. This dependency can be actual "linking" or it can be inter-process; I don't think that changes the equation.
- __david__ 10y agoNot exactly the same—shared libs don't have process isolation like an external crypto process would.
- ackalker 10y agoInteresting fact: while not all shared object files are executable (or rather: do something interesting other than dump core), some most definitely are: try executing libc someday: $ /usr/lib/libc.so.6 See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1449987/building-a-so-that-is-also-an-executable http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1449987/building-a-so-tha... for more information.